notions of chance and fate are the preoccupations of men engaged in rash undertakings

Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after he plundered the stronghold
on the proud height of Troy.
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A blog about RPGs and settings.

Atavists’ Retreat

In an isolated grotto hides a settlement of saltwater lizardfolk. Reclusive, primitive, proud, and fierce, the lizardfolk have colonized the sea-cave and–it being the repository for the tribe’s eggs–will defend it to the last.

There are two natural entrances from the sea, and the cavern is perpetually flooded. There’s an interior beach where the main settlement rests, an islet with a watch-hut, and another with the sacred hut of the tribe’s shaman. During the day the sea channels admit enough sunlight to illuminate the grotto; at night, the tribe lights a driftwood bonfire and the torches lining the beach.

Day in the grotto is clean and clear with a saltspray tang; breeze carries away the smell of the lizardfolk. Evening finds the grotto dark and moody, all flickering firelight that never quite reaches as far as you would like.

The grotto of the lizardfolk. Players’ copy.

Lizardfolk are stern and sober, and don’t take well to visitors in the grotto without exceedingly persuasive justification. Any aggression–or uninvited visitors–will be met by a hail of javelins followed by the males of the tribe swimming out to greet the interlopers.

GM’s version with grid. 10’x10′ squares.

1: A small islet with a guard/warming hut. Typically occupied by warriors armed with javelins and a warning horn.

2: The tribe’s sacred island. Hut with a low fire perpetually burning inside; used by the tribe’s shaman for vision quests and mystic isolation. Equal odds at any given time that the shaman is on the island, or back with the rest of the tribe.

3: These communal longhouses shelter the majority of the tribe. Lizardfolk are communal creatures, huddling together when temperatures drop.

4: The tribe’s firepit. Every evening the tribe stokes up a huge driftwood fire, later taking shovelfuls of coals back to the longhouses to warm them through the night.

5: Prisoner posts. When the tribe captures prisoners, they are bound here as both an example to the tribe of the chieftain’s might, as well as a way of keeping the tribe’s food fresh on its feet.

6: The chieftain’s hut sits on a ledge a few feet higher than the rest of the village, befitting the largest and oldest male in the tribe.